Best Kitchen

“The first thing she told me,” Baratz recalls, “was that she wanted the kitchen to feel like the rest of the house.” Before making choices about cabinetry and finishes, Baratz reworked the layout. She instituted a classic L-shaped setup, complete with an island, to replace the existing galley formation.
Photograph by Diane Anton

Best Kitchen

Karen Watson and her husband, Stuart, refurbished their whole circa 1860 Venetian Gothic town house in the South End, but the most significant overhaul was in the kitchen. Karen partnered with kitchen designer Barbara Baratz of Venegas and Company to re-imagine the garden-floor space, both functionally and aesthetically.

Photograph by Diane Anton
| October 19, 2012

“The first thing she told me,” Baratz recalls, “was that she wanted the kitchen to feel like the rest of the house.” Before making choices about cabinetry and finishes, Baratz reworked the layout. She instituted a classic L-shaped setup, complete with an island, to replace the existing galley formation.

Photograph by Diane Anton
| October 19, 2012

Karen, who owns Acorn Hill Design in Boston, had been admiring the home for two months when a For Sale sign appeared. By the next day, the town house was theirs. “The minute we walked in,” Karen says, “it felt like home.”

Photograph by Diane Anton
| October 19, 2012

A glossy charcoal-gray Aga cooker is the kitchen’s centerpiece, set against a glistening backsplash of herringbone-patterned mosaic marble tile.

Photograph by Diane Anton
| October 19, 2012

The cabinetry, which has a traditional milk-paint finish, blends classic and fanciful elements.

Photograph by Diane Anton
| October 19, 2012

Some of the cabinets boast glass fronts with an arched silhouette that mimics the bow windows at the front of the house.

On either side of the Aga, the cabinets are relatively simple — inset doors with beaded frames, exposed polished-nickel hinges, and glass knobs.

Photograph by Diane Anton
| October 19, 2012

Countertops are of darkly veined calacatta blue marble.

Photograph by Diane Anton
| October 19, 2012

In the eating area, the detail is all in the ceiling. Above the well-worn wood dining table is a magical architectural touch — the ornate frame to an antique skylight, reclaimed from a mansion on Commonwealth Avenue. A huge oval, with spokes radiating from the center and half circles looping around the inner edge like icing on a cake, it’s the room’s crowning glory.